Lesson: 23
7/XI/2010
- Lesson time: dual - 0.7h, Solo - 0.2h
- Total time: 18.4h (0.3h solo)
- Location: EGAD
- Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)
She only finished at 10:15, the time when I was suppose to go up. Gavin wasn't back yet, and when they landed (again, waiting in the queue at the triangle, because of all the traffic), they had a rather extensive debrief with his student.
So I decided to take matters into my own hands, and asked for the key. Took my time with preflights, because somehow I knew that I have time. The only thing that was bothering me, was a bit of oil inside one of the wheels. Apart from that , everything was super cool. I had time to make myself comfortable in the aircraft, strap myself in , etc. Meanwhile Daniel was struggling to 172 started next to the 152, I think it took like 4 times. I raised my flaps, to see it better, and thought even about possible action should there be a fire or something (you never know). But it was okay. However it doesn't hurt to be prepared for the worse.
Anyway. Gavin joined me, we talked about the plan for Today. Circuits circuits, and more circuits. On top of that, glide approach (should engine fail, but I could reach the runway), surprise efato (when instructor pulls the power on you, whist you are on the take off climb), and some solo work if time and the instructor permits. Never flew with Gavin before, so obviously he had no idea what a piece of work I am ;)
Anyway. Off we went, Gavin's call sign is 'scrabo 66'. For some reason, on the take off roll, I said 'scrabo 66 6 rolling active'. Don't ask.
Gavin told me to level off, before turning in the circuit, which should give me much better lookout. Another good piece of advice. This is the bright side to having multiple instructors.
Due to some traffic, and the fact that I started to level off before each turn, my circuits were looking a bit funny. Instead of flying parallel to the runway, I started to turn in a bit. So my base legs were rather short, and I had to S turn pretty much half of my finals. But I managed good (I think).
On my second circuit, Gavin pulled power and asked me what am I going to do now. Pushed the nose forward for 70 knots, and started to look for a field. I noticed a lot of wires in the air around pretty much all streets in the area. Very scary. I would turn 45 deg to either side, to avoid the wires, but was too low already. So I pushed the power back, and off we went. I think Gavin was ok with my implementation of the efato procedure.
On 4th circuits, I was asked to do glide approach. The basic idea is, that you have an engine failure on downwind, and you want to land on the real piece of runway. So about abeam numbers on the downwind, Gavin pulled the power again, and walked me through it. Basically, same deal as with efato, but you want to land on the rwy. Flaps 10 or 20, if required, speed at 70, trim, and start level one turn towards runway. I did that rather well, but there was the fire truck on the runway, so it was a go around. (again, cos 3rd one ended up in go around too. Daniel and student were still on the runway when I was about to land).
No GPS record from Today, cos the iphone app decided to stop recording it when I put it in my pocked :/ Oh well.
Don't remember how many circuits exactly I did. One before the last, Gavin asked me if I'm okay doing one on my own. Of course I was !.
I dropped him off at the apron, and turned around, checked for traffic twice actually (but turned in the other direction than the circuits ...). This time I was told to use 'student kilo romeo' as my call sign. There was one guy on base, so I just jumped in, announced my intentions and went up. I remember adjusting my seatbelt to be very tight, just in case. It is something that I always tell my passengers when I have one in the car. Problem with harness not done tightly is that it will actually break your bones and do more damage than good should anything go wrong. I have to say, I am pretty anal about it. But anyway.
So off I went, on cross wind some guy announced that he is going to do an overhead join, and once I turned base, I could actually see him flying over. I'm sure he wasn't doing the overhead join at 2k ft, it was more likely 1500 or so. But still safe enough.
Despite my attempts to make the circuit wide, especially on downwind, I ended up not so much parallel to the rwy, and again doing an S turn on my finals.
Apart from that, my landings were rather good I gotta say. We had to go around twice, which was a shame. But that was due to external factors.
On the last dual landing, we ended up bit high. So I was asked if I can do a slip. I know about crossing controls, etc, but never actually tried it on finals before. So I had a chance. I gotta say, it feels much better when you are the guy that actually controls the manoeuvre.
Solo circuit landing was pretty good too. I turned left to the triangle (see the EGAD layout to get the idea), and saw the aircadets guy just backtracking the active. Now I would have to wait for another guy to land (was on downwind), and aircadet moto-glider to take off before I would get to the apron. So I asked him, if he wouldn't mind letting me past. The reply was 'if you can catch up on the rwy, sure'. So I pushed the power, turned towards the apron, and passed him to his left, over a bit dodgy tarmac on the sides of the run-up bit of the runway. But managed to get by on my own. Couldn't be prouder of my achievement :)
I know it sounds corky, but these little things can be quite fulfilling.
I am still not confident enough about the size of the aircraft, to turn it around on the apron, so I kind of abandoned it between two other aircraft, but not close to the edge, but rather some distance before it:
Oooops, sorry. Wrong flick.
Here, this one should be the right one:
I was told to shut it down myself, and note the meters. And so I did.
Got a bit of a debrief, where Gavin explained why I shouldn't really do more than two notches turn on climb out. It all made sense. And after reading also Stick and Rudder, I got the idea even better.
Gavin complemented my flying, and said that I should really start thinking about doing Navs. I dunno what to say about that really (maybe you have suggestions ? ). I do the circuits for some time now, but I would also love to do some solo ones. On the other hand, seeing a bit of a different type of flying, might be quite nice. I always like new things, and get bored doing same thing after a while, so maybe he is right.
Dunno. That actually makes me wonder on the book I should start reading next. Met or Nav. The latter has to be bought, cos I don't have it.
Afterwards I ended up buying the club's t-shirt for my youngest brother. It's his birthday in bit over a week. I am going home for a week, mainly because of that event. For some reason, that has more value to me , than spending christmas at home. But than, I am not really normal anyway. Am I.
All in all, I gotta say, that I probably had even bigger smile on my face after Today's solo.
I was told, how people have this great feeling for weeks after the first solo. I don't know, I was proud of myself, eager to do more, but the feeling was more like 'finally !', rather than 'I am so great, look at me!'. But than, maybe I am just old. I remember tho, my first drive after getting my driver's license. But that's obviously not on the subject here. Suffice to say, I couldn't get enough. And I still do love to drive. I know that same thing will be true about flying.
And on that bombshell....
- Route: circuits, RWY22
- Milestones: glide approach, another solo, first side-slip on my own.
- Exercises covered: ex 12, 13 and 14
- Weather: some clouds, QNH 1013, virtually no wind or cloud on the sky.
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